The U.K. and Ireland box office found its force over the weekend as Disney’s “Star Wars” spinoff “The Mandalorian and Grogu” captured the top spot, debuting to £5.2 million ($7.1 million). Universal’s musical biopic “Michael” moved to second place in its sixth week of release but sustained momentum, taking $2.4 million for a robust cumulative […]

Thailand’s Creative Economy Agency (CEA) is launching the Bangkok International Content Market 2026 (BICM2026), one of the country’s first dedicated international marketplaces for film, series, and animation, set to run July 20–22 at the Queen Sirikit National Convention Center in Bangkok. The event is being developed jointly with the Department of International Trade Promotion under […]

Thespian Tony Leung Chiu-wai has three productions in the pipeline: a film to be directed by Johnnie To, a separate India-set project and a six-or-seven-episode streaming series in which he will play a serial killer. The Hong Kong screen legend disclosed the projects while speaking to Variety ahead of his role as jury president of […]

Sting will star in a newly adapted production of his musical “The Last Ship” at Theatre Royal Drury Lane in London from Sept. 22 to Oct. 3, produced by Karl Sydow, with Barney Norris contributing a new book. Leo Warner directs, with 59 – a Journey studio – handling set and video design. The production […]

Australian production company Titantale Film is mid-shoot on “Tanabata: The Evening of the Seventh,” a supernatural romance drama starring Japanese actor Yamada Takayuki. The project, fully funded out of Australia with production service partners in Japan, spans three historical periods – Edo-period Japan, 1865 New South Wales and 2027 Australia – following three incarnations of […]

India’s Impact Films has pulled off a rare double at Cannes, with both the Palme d’Or winner and the Grand Prix winner – Cristian Mungiu’s “Fjord” and Andrei Zvyagintsev’s “Minotaur” – having been acquired for South Asian distribution before the festival opened. “Fjord,” acquired from Goodfellas, is Mungiu’s first film shot outside Romania and follows […]

India’s Matchbox Shots has acquired the screen rights to “The Gurugram School Murder,” crime journalist Leena Dhankhar’s account of the 2017 killing of a child at an elite school in Gurugram. The adaptation draws from Dhankhar’s reporting on one of India’s most prominent criminal cases. On Sept. 8, 2017, a seven-year-old boy known publicly as […]

Tadka, the microdrama platform within leading Indian streamer JioHotstar, has crossed 100 million users, establishing premium short-form content as a mainstream entertainment category in India. Since launch, daily watch time per viewer on Tadka has grown fivefold, reflecting sustained engagement with the format. More than 42% of the service’s viewership comes from audiences under 24, […]

The Royal Shakespeare Company has unveiled a 36-strong cast for the play “Game of Thrones: The Mad King,” with Michael Shaeffer in the title role of King Aerys II Targaryen. The world premiere of the new play, adapted by Duncan Macmillan from George R. R. Martin’s novels, opens at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon […]

Charlie Burn and Ashley Gilmour are set to lead the cast of “Jane Eyre,” the musical by John Caird and Paul Gordon, when the show makes its U.K. premiere at Southwark Playhouse Elephant in London. The play opens Aug. 28 and plays through Oct. 24. Burn, who recently starred as Cady Heron in “Mean Girls” […]

Fragrant Nature Film Creations has acquired exclusive distribution rights to “Josephine” across the Indian subcontinent. The deal covers India, Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and the Maldives. Directed by Beth de Araújo and starring Channing Tatum and Gemma Chan – both of whom also serve as producers – “Josephine” follows an eight-year-old girl, played […]

Netflix has confirmed production of Korean crime drama series “Paper Man” (working title), with Cho Jung-seok, Park Hae-soo and Claudia Kim leading the cast under director Lee Il-hyung. The series centers on Cha Myung-jo, a meek worker at a company producing imitation character stickers who, despite nominally heading his household, lives in the shadow of […]